[Wowfunhappy]

...to my knowledge, Starbucks has never engaged in predatory pricing to begin with, so at this point I'm legitimately not sure what we're discussing here.

If the question is, given a willingness to blatantly violate anti-trust law, and lose immense amounts of short-term for long-term gains, could Starbucks drive out all competition? And... I actually don't think they could, because (A) coffee shop patrons like variety and (B) I'm not clear that Starbucks could necessarily outlast e.g. Dunkin' Donuts.

Starbucks is just a poor example. Walmart would be a much better example.

[baddox]

Has Walmart ever been charged for predatory pricing? There have been plenty of accusations and lawsuits, but from what I've seen, they amount to accusations of having a few "loss leader" products. I can't find any evidence that either 1) loss leader pricing strategies are clearly illegal or 2) that Walmart actually prices things at a loss rather than simply cheaper than the cheapest price a competitor can offer.